Consumer-Centered eHealth: Challenges and Opportunities for China

Abstract

Information and communications technology (ICT) has great potential for helping China achieve a greater level of 'consumer-centered' health services. The objectives of the research were to: (i) explore the availability of ICT infrastructure for health in China; and (ii) develop an approach for Consumer-centered eHealth (CeH) Technology adoption to solve those problems. The approach to evaluating the ICT infrastructure in China involved examining variables of school enrolment, per capita income and governance variables on the number of PCs, fixed telephones, mobile phone subscribers and Internet users. These were evaluated using a double-log regression model and cross-sectional data on various provinces in China. The analysis was based on 31 of the 34 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities that comprise Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. There were a number of main findings: (i) medical literacy and the number of Internet users had a statistically significant positive relationship with the number of PCs in each province; (ii) the combined school enrolment rate and per capita income had a statistically significant direct relationship with the number of fixed telephones and mobile phone subscribers; (iii) the combined school enrolment ratio and the number of fixed telephones had a statistically significant positive relationship with Internet usage; (iv) there were major inequalities in ICT connectivity between upper-middle, lower-middle and low income provinces in China; and (v) the information quality had statistically significant positive effect on all determinants. In order to improve access to health care, especially for remote rural areas and for the elderly in China, there is need to boost the availability and utilization of eHealth services. Each province will need to develop a road map in a strategic CeH plan that will, over time, enable its citizens to realize that vision.